Luck expects $50K shortfall this year

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University’s athletics department, nearly $13 million in the red during fiscal year 2011-12, projects only about a $50,000 shortfall this year, Oliver Luck told the WVU faculty senate Monday.

“That may change a little bit as we sell season tickets and get the Mountaineer Athletic Club going during the course of May and June,” said Luck, the school’s athletics director. “But we feel very comfortable that we’ll have a very small shortfall.”

The current fiscal year ends June 30.

Luck once again anchored last year’s debt to the $20 million exit fee West Virginia paid the Big East Conference in order to realign with the Big 12. His department also paid $500,000 to buy out a football matchup against Florida State. WVU’s athletic revenue was $80,064,869, ranking 28th nationally, but it spent $92,968,960 (13th highest). The athletic department received about $4.4 million in subsidies from the university.

“Go back to fiscal year 11-12, take out some of those extraordinary items, and we actually would have had a net adjusted income of $5.6 million,” Luck said.

The Mountaineers will receive only a half-share of their Big 12 revenue this year, incrementally escalating to 67 percent in fiscal-year-ending 2014 and 85 percent in 2015 before finally netting a full share in 2015-16.

“We recognized that going into this conference we would have a couple of challenging years financially,” Luck said. “But over the long term, certainly beginning in the fiscal year 14-15, we’re projecting to see some significant operating surpluses.”

Luck claimed WVU’s outstanding loan debt ($30 million) is the lowest of the Big 12’s eight public institutions, with its league counterparts averaging loan debt that exceeds $100 million.

“When you read about the arms race in college athletics, there’s a lot of folks who borrowed a lot of money to build a lot of infrastructure,” he said. So we’re glad that we can compete all the great things that put you in the Big 12, but also that we’re able to do that in a relatively prudent fashion.”

CLASSROOM CONCERNS
Along with increasing travel expenses, WVU’s position as the Big 12’s geographical outlier creates concerns about late-returning athletes not being fresh for class. One faculty member said she witnessed the grades of some athletes suffering during finals.

Luck, however, said WVU’s teams coped well with this year’s new travel demands.

“We’ve had instances where one of the basketball teams will get home at 3 or 4 in the morning,” he said. “We encourage them to get up in the morning and get to class, and certainly Coach Huggins and Coach Carey will have ’em do all sorts of drills if they don’t.

“I haven’t seen any other evidence of any academic challenges beyond the two basketball programs.”

Luck said WVU sends tutors and academic advisers on some charter flights, helping maximize the study opportunities for athletes away from campus. He also recounted requests WVU made for Big 12 basketball regarding earlier start times for weeknight road games and scheduling a Saturday-Monday layover that consumes two travel games before spring semester.

Allan Taylor

Allan Taylor joined MetroNews in August 2012, following 18 years of newspaper, magazine and multimedia work as an SEC columnist, sports editor, assistant sports editor, managing editor, news reporter and media consultant.

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Comments

big tom

thank God for the rifle team

May 14, 2013 at 3:28 pm |

Woodchuck

I guess the party and trophy for the rifle team went over budget!

We do have ONE champion.

May 14, 2013 at 1:51 pm |

WVIRGINIAN FOR LIFE

Yes, thank goodness for the rifle team. They perform great, year after year!!

May 14, 2013 at 6:29 pm |

Shadow

And no support from Luck. They do it on their own and are the best.

May 15, 2013 at 9:40 am |

big tom

i think wvu will do well in the future,,, finanically,,, that is.... Luck is a sharp mind, he screwed up on tier 3 rights but over all a great man.

huggins agains needs to produce and go to t he big dance this yr, or fire him.
10,000 a day is out of the question with losing teams... this iscrazy..
i think luck overspent on huggs... and huggs and laughing to the bank, andpartying all the way,,,, let's put some incentives on huggs's contract... win or you're gone

May 14, 2013 at 12:03 pm |

Shadow

One question, was the IMG situation a quid pro quo situation for Luck? Who knows!

May 15, 2013 at 9:43 am |

JS

Maybe Huggs will give up 5 days pay to keep us even for the year. Right, WILLIAM? LOL!!!

May 14, 2013 at 11:26 am |

cutty77

Huggs will get a pass for this past year,and he deserves that.If this Team contines to under-preform Huggs will not put up with Himself either.Remember he has a Buy-Out or Walk Away clause in his new Contract. In The Year 2015. Remember that Date.

May 14, 2013 at 12:52 pm |

big tom

why does anyone making this kind of money get a pass............ insane,
one more yr of this 13-19 and i won't buy another ticket to any wvu function until he is fired
and look at his stellar recruit,,, three felonies pending,,, porno, thieft of a laptop,,, what is luck doing, sleeping on the job like pastilong did.
things just maybe staying the same only the names have changed,,, instead of garrison, pastilong , stewart, we now have clemons, luck and huggins.

May 14, 2013 at 7:59 pm |

cutty77

WVU is in The Best Shape it has ever Been in Sports and Class Room work. When we were in The Big East they were so bad at paying us our Money,because they held on to it for a entire year or two.As for season Tickets they don't report them untill the month of June. I guess everybody missed the New Big 12 money split. The least it will be is 26 mill per Team,and as Much as 28 mill,without Tier 3 rights. In this article it stated WVU an Texas as getting payed over 9 mill. a year on 3rd tier rights. Say what you want to about Oliver.WVU is set up right for the Future. By The way The ACC gets the least amount per Team 17 mill. Get U Sum Of That. LOL

May 14, 2013 at 11:18 am |

Mike

you guys are too funny at least we are moving in the right direction. The Big 12 was the right move and now we need to start winning in every sport and prove we belong because ACC, BIG 10 & SEC did want us so with that said lets start pulling for WVU to WIN!!!! AND WIN BIG!!!!!

May 14, 2013 at 10:38 am |

GravityDefier

Mr. Taylor, come out of your Ivory Tower and do some real reporting. How many football season tickets have been sold so far this year compared to last year???

May 14, 2013 at 9:57 am |

GravityDefier

I have not seen a published report on the number of football season tickets sold so far this year as opposed to last year. I'd bet they are off, or down, by as much as 50%. Maybe that is why we have not heard of a number yet. It'll be a huge decline. That will have Dollar Bill Ollie sitting up and taking notice.

May 14, 2013 at 9:55 am |

luke

I must have missed Luck's prediction last year for spending $12,000,000 more than WV would take in.

What, no report on Tier 3 by anyone in the Athletic Department? Oh I forgot, we're still greasing the skids for IMG College to further rip off WVU fans and advertisers.

May 14, 2013 at 9:48 am |

nh

Did you miss the part about the debt being caused by the exit fee paid to leave the Big East?

Explain how IMG College will rip off WVU fans. If anything, the deal with IMG allows the brand to extend its reach and allows for increased marketability.

Just cheer on the Mountaineers and the numbers will take care of themselves.

May 14, 2013 at 12:57 pm |

luke

Check your ticket prices and MAC costs. They are already rearranging the seating in the Coliseum.

May 14, 2013 at 7:25 pm |

Charles

Prices are the same as last year retard!!!!! I paid the same for the same seats. Come see me. Section 129. Just making people pay what their section calls for. Noooooo increases.

May 14, 2013 at 11:25 pm |

Charles

But hey. I get it. We should of stayed in the big east. Be like uconn. I bet you would've paid the big bucks to see temple and uconn at mps. Just like the rest of our fans. Boy it would be fun to win the AAC. And get invited to no where. You either play big boy football or not. Big east was dead when Pitt and Syracuse voted down the 1.5 billion tv big east deal. After that we had to make a move. And the acc would of never taken us!!!!!!! Period. Big 12 schools love us. Wish our old timers would understand and get in board. They understand our state and university better than elitist northern schools ever did. Out there they want the farmers kid to have a chance like our coal miners kids. Not a bunch of snobs like The acc where a kid from mcdowell has a chance.

May 14, 2013 at 11:33 pm |

hailey

Luke would not want the facts to get in the way of a good trolling

May 14, 2013 at 1:20 pm |

Mountainman

Too bad the IMG deal was delayed.... as WVU's Athletic Department would have been in the black by a considerable margin if that had not been the case.

May 14, 2013 at 9:48 am |

luke

I hear Marshall is awash in money as a result of IMG College handling their media rights! Likewise Pitt!

May 14, 2013 at 9:59 am |

Mountainman

......No Product equals No Market...... that's the difference.

May 14, 2013 at 12:25 pm |

luke

7-6 and 13-19 is a product? In a league that is at least 4th in football and maybe 6th in basketball among the BCS conferences. We aren't selling Wheaties here.

May 14, 2013 at 7:19 pm |

Charles

Football fourth??? Are you retarded? Really. 9 out of 10 on bowl games. Do you even watch football???

May 14, 2013 at 11:22 pm |

JSpurlock86

Looks like the future will be bright for WVU athletics!!!!

Stop being so negative people, geez!!!!!!

May 14, 2013 at 9:39 am |

hailey

They are called trolls that is what they do ...bring nothing to the table just trying to stir the pot

May 14, 2013 at 1:19 pm |

WVIRGINIAN FOR LIFE

The migration to the Big12 may have been a good move, however, Luck has zero integrity and certainly no positive relationship with the coaches or fans. He's an arrogant a _ _. Also, I thought college was an institution of higher learning. Not about sports. Right.......

May 14, 2013 at 8:56 am |

GregG

With Luck in control, it isn't even about sports anymore. It's all about the $$$!! And, in my opinion if the Big 12 doesn't get off it's butt and expand, WVU is going to be right back in the same situation it was in with the Big East.

May 14, 2013 at 3:34 pm |

Larry

I think you are right, it certainly looks like the Big 12 is going to be on the outside looking in at the 16 team super conferences.

May 15, 2013 at 9:11 am |

ShinnstonGuy

What a revelation about academics! The basketball schedules for both teams were stupid for an institution of "higher learning." The men and women were flying to BFE during the middle of the week and often playing late games. It is good news that the other sports held up well though.

May 14, 2013 at 7:31 am |

Gadfly

Look at all these posts. No one has any concern about academics.

May 16, 2013 at 9:37 am |

Larry

If the football team plays like they did last year, and let's be honest, it looks very bleak, I suspect it will be a lot more than 50k.

May 14, 2013 at 7:12 am |

WILLIAM

50k is pennys to WVU. The athletic department at WVU is overpaid! 'Sweatsuit Huggins' and 'Casino' Holgerson make each over $10,000 dollars a day. Maybe they can donate a few thousand to 'Money Man' Luck to get him off the hot seat.

May 14, 2013 at 12:25 pm |

Habib Haddad

Anyone who paid attention to this conference realignment flap had to know that WVU athletics would have a couple of lean years until the big money from the Big XII started kicking in. I would posit that a $50,000 shortfall in year two is a moral victory if not an outright victory. Consider this. Would you prefer to be in the old Big East making $3 million per year?

May 14, 2013 at 6:41 am |

Jimmy

Because losing 13 million and losing 50,000 is better than making millions? We should have kept a North East conference alive. It's only where most of the people in the U.S. live! Bigger contracts would have came. Now we are waiting to get BigXII money in the future. Hope Oklahoma and Kansas don't go to the Big10!

May 14, 2013 at 10:08 am |

Bob

Losing $13,000,00 and then making $20,000,000 is better than being stuck in the Big East making $3,000,000. The larger paydays will come, and they will make any lost Big East money pale in comparison. One step back before two steps forward.

September 4, 2013 at 5:37 pm |

Charles

You have to be kidding!!!!! Really!!! The payouts in the AAC is less than 3 million. In the big 12 it is 25 million plus. And who would we play in this great northeastern conference with all the rb's that people would show up to watch. Uconn, temple, and who else. Pitt, Syracuse were gone. Forever. Before us. So we could've stayed. Be on the outside of the big boy club playing nobody in a empty mountaineer field because our fans get excited about opponents. Seems brilliant.

May 14, 2013 at 1:20 pm |

Mark

As opposed to playing the big boys and getting beaten like a rented mule in an empty mountaineer field. I don't care how much money they are making.

May 15, 2013 at 10:29 am |

Art in Ohio

The seats will not be empty and and we will see great victories in the future. You have to play the big boys in a major conference to survive in college football today. I read these negative responses and its due to all the change going on in Morgantown. I believe we are headed in the right direction and we have a bright future.

September 4, 2013 at 3:35 pm |

WILLIAM

WVU does not belong in the BIG 12 for many reasons!

May 15, 2013 at 3:35 pm |

hailey

You are correct Jimmy we "should have kept a North East confernce alive"... and how should we have done that by forcing Pitt, PSU, MD, RU SU to join? Try again my friend we did what we could do and a $$ loss the first couple of years by most accounts is called an investment and was expected. If OU and KU want to leave so be it, the rest of the conference would be happy to take their TV rights $$ for the next 13yrs

May 14, 2013 at 1:18 pm |

Rugger

Might I recommend focusing on the donut instead of the hole?

May 14, 2013 at 11:42 am |

WILLIAM

"Jumpsuit Huggins" just called Oliver "It's all about the MONEY" Luck and told him - I'LL FIX IT.